Photographs taken during the shooting of a controversial film by Hitler's favourite film-maker, German director Leni Riefenstahl, go on sale in Shropshire this week.

The 33 original photos from Tiefland (Lowlands) include shots of young gipsy children who it was alleged were taken from Nazi internment camps and forced to take part in the film.

The archive also includes a 1954 letter in which the director vehemently denies the claim and that the youngsters were then taken to Auschwitz, where they died in the gas chambers.

In October 2002, when Riefenstahl was 100, the German authorities dropped a case against her for falsely claiming that "each and every one" of the gipsies who were in the film survived the war.

Documents specialist Richard Westwood-Brookes, from auctioneers Mullock Madeley, claimed the photographs could end the debate once and for all.

" The present photographs of the gipsy children are extremely moving in their simplicity and tragic beyond belief if the claims against Riefenstahl are true," he said.

Riefenstahl, who died in September 2003 aged 101, is noted for her 1934 Nazi propaganda film about the Nuremberg Rallies, Triumph of the Will.

She is also recognised for breaking new ground in film-making techniques and aesthetics in her depiction of the 1936 Berlin Olympics.

Tiefland was Riefenstahl's last feature film. It was begun in the 1930s but not premiered until 1954.

"Critics of the film claim that it was funded by the Nazis and point out that its theme, the comparison between lowland or valley corruption to mountain purity, is a Nazi-based ideal, " said Mr Westwood-Brookes.

The photographs, which she is thought to have taken, have a guide price of between £2,000 and £3,000 and go under the hammer at Ludlow Racecourse on Thursday.